Chapter Text
Min Yoongi never really imagined that he’d find himself in a situation quite like this.
Said situation: Jung Hoseok, his best friend of ten years, standing in front of him with a nervous smile and a confession hanging in the air between them.
He’s been through similar circumstances in his life, awkward love confessions from boys and girls alike. Some of them he’d accepted, most of them he hadn’t. But this, this was on a whole different spectrum. This was Hoseok.
They’re currently watching each other, stuck in the moment between the confession and the answer, and Yoongi knows how delicate this situation is; one wrong move and their friendship is dissolved like cheap candy from the grocery store.
I really like you, Hyung.
I like you too Seok, now let’s go.
Wait, no! I mean, I like you like you. Um, like a crush. On you.
Time has frozen, at least if feels as if it had, like nothing has moved since Hoseok ended his speech, blush high on his cheeks. But Hoseok is still blinking shyly, endearing heart smile wobbling just slightly. Yoongi clears his throat, left hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck timidly.
“Say...something?”
Yoongi schools his expression. “Something.”
The tension breaks a little when Hoseok laughs lightly, Yoongi’s lip corners perking up into a small smile as well. This feeling was more familiar, how best friends should be acting. It was comforting.
“You’re a dick.” Hoseok giggles, groaning afterwards at the situation.
“Yeah, always have been.” And, well, that’s pretty true. “But Seok, Seokkie, are you being real with me about this right now? This is serious.”
Hoseok bites the inside of his bottom lip, only lightly, and wrings his hands together. It’s unnerving to see the usually cocky and sure of himself Jung Hoseok look so undone. By him, nonetheless.
“It’s weird, right?” Hoseok sighs.
And that’s an understatement. “Pretty weird, Seok. We’ve been best friends since middle school.”
The noise that Hoseok makes then is something between a squawk of embarrassment, and the groan of a dying man. He scrubs at his face in frustration. “I know, I know. Everything was normal until like a year ago, I dunno...Is it too weird?”
And Yoongi can never recall a time in his life where he thought of Hoseok romantically; had never felt the painful, crawling bubbles of a budding crush. On occasion he had called him cute, because he was, but knowing that Hoseok had started developing feelings for him a year ago was reality altering.
How was he feeling every time Yoongi slung his arm over his shoulder? Every time Yoongi leaned into him, when they play fought with one another? Yoongi wasn’t touchy with anyone by nature, but Hoseok had made himself an exception. It had taken a while, originally, to get used to how touchy Hoseok was, but after ten years he had not only gotten used to it, he’s succumbed to it.
Hoseok must have been suffering with all the touching, Yoongi snickers in his head.
“Nah, it’s weird, but not too weird I suppose.”
Hoseok shifts, hides his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He’s developed too many nervous quirks, and Yoongi knows all of them by now.
It’s ridiculous of him to scuff his shoes on the pavement, ridiculous of him to be acting so shyly back. Hoseok is his best friend, the answer here should be easy: just stay friends so that nothing gets fucked up. Yoongi doesn’t even think he likes Hoseok like that, doesn’t know if he ever will, but inside he’s still in turmoil. Normally he’s not so indecisive, Yoongi is a man of habit.
Hoseok clears his throat. “Um…”
“You want an answer, huh.”
Hoseok’s brown eyes are wide. “Yeah, it’d be appreciated.”
Yoongi shifts his weight between feet, shuffling back and forth. He sighs once more, heart beating fast (what the fuck?), before letting his eyes fall on his best friend once more. The situation is fucking weird, he kind of wants to say ‘no,’ but making Hoseok sad is just not a possibility. And really...it might not be that bad, to date him.
Ugh.
“You better take me on a bomb ass date Jung Hoseok, or I swear.”
He leaves it open ended: I swear I’ll punch you, laugh at you, not go on another date with you? Hoseok could probably take anything except the last one, that would break him.
He can’t help it when his eyes start watering, happy and relieved and more emotions than he can name bottled up into one. Hoseok smiles his heart smile and Yoongi’s gone, has always been gone for that smile.
“Yoon, you know how awful I am on dates.”
Hands on his hips, Yoongi smirks. “Then you better step up your game. I’m not some easy date, you know.”
And God does he know it, Yoongi’s always been the pickiest dater. But he said yes. To Hoseok. Knowing that Yoongi remembered what Seok had looked like in middle school, had known about all the crazy, idiotic shit he did on the daily, and somehow still said yes...Hoseok was shook.
“I know, I know.” Hoseok wants to hug him, but ultimately decides to keep to himself. The boundary between friends and more than friends still shining brightly around them. Not yet. Not yet. “You won’t regret it, Yoongi. I’ll do my best.”
“Well, now that that’s over with,” Yoongi starts walking once more, and Hoseok jogs to catch up with him. “Everyone’s probably pissed that we’re late. You have shitty timing for confessing you know?”
Hoseok laughs, the air between them finally starting to clear. If it hadn’t just happened, Hoseok would have never thought he had finally managed to confess at all. It had been spontaneous, he sure as hell hadn’t imagined confessing like that in all the times he’d envisioned it, but the feeling had finally filled him up until he was bursting.
They jump in Yoongi’s car, it’s nice but still quite a few years old, and the interior smells sort of like him. Hoseok may or may not take a deep inhale upon buckling up.
“Friday.” Hoseok murmurs, on edge again with bringing the topic back up. The car’s quiet, a random rap droning on in the background at a low volume. Yoongi always has interesting music playing.
The blond man keeps his eyes on the road, signaling as he changes lanes. “Hmm?”
“We’ll go on our date Friday, if you’re free.”
And Hoseok knows that Yoongi is free, he’s always free on Fridays, but he waits on the answer anyways. Dedicating his life to waiting on answers from Min Yoongi.
“Oh.” Yoongi blinks, and Hoseok gulps, anxious. “Okay, yeah. Are you gonna pick me up like a proper date?”
“I’ll pick you up.” Hoseok snickers. “I’ll even bring a flower or two, if you’d like it.”
“Don’t you dare show up on my doorstep unless you’ve got a smeraldo flower in hand.”
Hoseok’s eyes widen and he turns to Yoongi in mild shock. “What the fuck is a smeraldo flower?”
Yoongi smiles devilishly. “I saw it on twitter. Looks pretty nice.”
The dark haired man groans in disbelief, while Yoongi has fun laughing in the driver’s seat. When he glances up, their eyes meet in the reflection of the window. Just for a second, Yoongi’s laugh teary eyes watch him, before safely going back to the road.
And Hoseok thinks, maybe this could work. Maybe they could work.
___________________
“Why am I here again?”
Yoongi shoots Namjoon with his signature angry face, causing the other man to hold his hands up in surrender. It’s the thousandth time Namjoon has dared to complain, by this point Yoongi is wishing he had asked Jin to come over instead. He’d have been ten times more helpful, not to mention less complaining. He probably would have enjoyed this, for christ’s sake.
‘This’ being the typical ‘have no idea what to wear to my date’ rendezvous featuring the unreliable Kim Namjoon and the biggest pile of clothes strewn around his room he’s ever seen.
“Namjoon I swear to fuck if you don’t help me I’m never buying you food again.”
Namjoon is second only to Jungkook as top moocher in their friend group. The look of fear the Namjoon gives him tell him just how effective his threat had been.
“Okay, okay.” Namjoon flops down onto the nearby computer chair. It creaks under his weight, poor old thing. “Don’t stop feeding me.”
“Now that we have that established, please fucking help me find something.”
“He said casual right?” Namjoon purses his lips. “Just wear some nice jeans and a nice shirt. This is Hoseok we’re talking about, and don’t get me started on how weird this is for us, but he’s going to be more happy that you’re there than by what you’re wearing.”
Yoongi throws himself onto his bed, and consequently on top of a large pile of discarded clothes. “This is weird for me too, you know.”
“I just can’t believe it, I never even knew he liked you like that!” Namjoon sounds exasperated.
Yoongi snuggles into one of his soft t-shirt, pillowing his head onto it and closing his eyes. “Yeah, you and me both. I don’t even know if I believe it now.”
They sit in the near silence for a moment, thinking, when Yoongi’s phone pings. He doesn’t even have to look to know who it is, but he reaches for it nonetheless and clicks his screen on to check.
Seokie.
Yoongi stares at his screen long enough for it to flicker black again, and by this time Namjoon is watching him curiously, one eyebrow arched and a small smirk on his face.
“Boyfriend?” He jokes, laughing when Yoongi manages to blush.
“You fucking-!”
“Ok ay.” Joon laughs again, tilting his head back and snickering. “Your date, then?”
Ugh, date. A word he never would have imagined to go hand in hand with the name Hoseok. He still feels unsure about the whole thing, Hoseok was known to lose interest in people quickly. Of course they’d already known each other thing long and he hadn’t gotten tired of his cranky hyung, but this was different; this was them, together, romantically.
Jesus.
Eventually Yoongi opens the message and can’t help but bite his lip to hide a small smile. Namjoon seems to notice though, and snickers some more, but Yoongi ignores him like usual. Fuck that kid, honestly. The second Namjoon tries to date someone again, Yoongi swears he’s going to give him so much hell.
I’ll be there soon <3
Uh probably shouldn’t hv done that
Ignore heart
Yoongi simpers as his fingers move over the screen’s keyboard.
k i’ll see u when youre here
And after a small hesitation, sends a follow up text, clicking send before he loses his nerve and throwing his phone away quickly in favor of hiding his face in the mattress. They’re cool against his warm face.
k i’ll see u when youre here
<3
“Okay, real talk Namjoon. What the fuck am I wearing?”
___________
By the time Hoseok is standing at Yoongi’s doorstep, he’s somehow finally dressed and ready. He does end up going for the look Namjoon had advised, a pair of his darker, stretchier jeans and a black t-shirt. It’s simple, hadn’t deserved his miniature freak out at all, but he chalks it up to first date nerves.
Namjoon’s already left, sneaking out the door of Yoongi’s small flat only minutes before Hoseok had pulled up. He’d turned around before getting in his car to quickly yell, “Have fun on your date, weirdo!”
Yoongi had flipped him off.
The doorbell rings, an unfamiliar sound since most of his friends knocked. Hoseok himself usually knocked, was he trying to make this weird this early on?! Yoongi grabs his wallet and shoves it in his back pocket beside his phone, picks up his keys, and opens the door.
Jung Hoseok has not always been handsome. When they’d first met, the two of them had been chubby, Hoseok sporting a terrible, choppy haircut that his mother had done to him. Yoongi had been in the middle of braces, and awful acne on top of that. The point of all of this was that Yoongi would have to be blind to not notice how good looking his best friend is.
He looks like a proper casual date, light colored jeans with cute cuffs at his ankles, a striped v-neck tucked in, and a thin jacket to fight off the chill of fall. It takes a moment for Yoongi to remember this is Hoseok his date, and not Hoseok his friend; he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t difficult to switch mindsets.
But then he sees the bundle of flowers in Hoseok’s hand, and this is most certainly a date.
“Hey Yoon!” Sunshine Hoseok grins, nervous, if Yoongi were to guess, but seemingly happy nonetheless. “I got you your flowers!”
“You’re kidding. These are smeraldos?”
Hoseok hands them over, lips rolled together in a smile. “Apparently. That’s what the shop owner said.”
“Smeraldo flowers are fucking real?” He leans down to smell them, pleased with the scent.
Yoongi leads the other man back inside his place, planning to quickly put the flowers in a vase, but is unable to find one. He clunks around in his wooden cabinets for a moment, before finding an old, tall mug that would make do for now. He fills it with water, and places the flowers inside. Hoseok seems pleased when Yoongi leans down for another sniff.
“Well,” Yoongi leans back up, motioning to Hoseok to lead the way back outside. “Thank you for them. I really didn’t know they were real.”
Hoseok’s back profile is really nice.
“You shouldn’t have asked for flowers if you didn’t even know they were real!” Hoseok complains, watching Yoongi lock the door and then walking beside him as they head towards Hoseok’s car.
“Since when do you buy me things when I ask for them anyways?” Yoongi snorts, opening the passenger side and settling in. Hoseok follows closely behind.
Yoongi can’t see Hoseok’s look, but dear God can he feel it, and it feels laden with annoyance, per usual. “That’s what people who are dating do, Yoongi, especially first dates. They’re important.”
Oh yeah, that’s right. They’re on a date. Those flowers were a gift from his date.
“Anyways,” Yoongi clicks his tongue. “You promised to blow my mind with this date. What did you bring to the table?”
“I figured something fun for our first date, something we haven’t done in a while.”
“And what exactly would that be?” Yoongi rakes his memory, imagine scenarios ranging from the tennis court, to that one time they went horseback riding. Yes, they’d ridden horses together, Yoongi should have known from that moment that they’d end up together for fucks sake.
The car takes a smooth turn, and the surroundings are only mildly familiar to Yoongi by this point. Hoseok doesn’t answer at first, taking his time teasing Yoongi until he’s glaring.
Finally he breaks with a light laugh. “Lazer tag, hyung. Do you remember the last time?”
And dear fuck does he remember, remembers having to run through the maze of walls with Hoseok as his only backup against a horde of kids from a birthday party. Really fucking remembers walking out of the dark room, out of breath and covered in sweat with Hoseok laughing at him in the background.
“Are you sure you want this as the date?” Yoongi grumbles. There is literally a zero percent chance of this date going well, or even really date-like at all.
“Do you not like it?” Hoseok worries, side-eyeing him.
“It’s just, not very date-like?”
Hoseok nods, agreeing. “I figured it might be for the best? To not rush into the romantic stuff yet?”
“Oh.” And that makes sense. Honestly, he probably would have been super spooked had they done something more intimate this early. Hoseok was really...thinking things through.
The parking lot of the lazer tag building is pretty busy, it is a Friday after all, and there are plenty of middle school aged kids roaming around with their uninterested parents. When they’ve finally found a parking spot, and the motor is off, Yoongi moves to unclick his seatbelt, but Hoseok’s hand stops him halfway.
“Are you disappointed?”
He looks sad. Jung Hoseok should never look sad.
“I was confused about it at first,” Yoongi smiles, gums showing, “but now that you said that, I probably would have freaked out at a candlelit dinner or some shit. This’ll be perfect, as long as I don’t get too winded and die.”
“I’m sure your lungs will be fine.” Hoseok stifles his laughter.
There’s a pretty good wait time stacked up, so the duo find some chairs and wait it out on their phones and with simple conversation. Hoseok scrolls through twitter, showing Yoongi anything he finds interesting and giving his heart smile every time Yoongi agrees. And if he’s being honest, this certainly doesn’t feel like a date, doesn’t look like one. If he didn’t know it was one, he’d never have guessed. But here they are, and this is definitely a date.
Knowing that makes it a little more real in his head.
They spend about fifteen minutes waiting before the game room clears and their waves starts. When asked for a nickname, Yoongi puts down ‘Suga’ and Hoseok, “Jhorse.” He had meant to write down ‘Jhope,’ his nickname given to him by Yoongi in school, where Suga is Yoongi’s, but his counterpart had stolen the pen and jotted that down instead.
Yoongi looks smug, Hoseok is just so incredibly happy.
In the end they’re put on one team, just the two of them, and the other team consists of eight, nine...ten kids, middle schoolers, by the look of them.
They put on their gear, listen to the instructor go over the rules and safety tips. When he mentions ‘no cussing’ Hoseok pointedly glares at Yoongi who goes out of his way to glare back. And then before he knows it they’re being herded into the dark maze. The kids shoot them cocky looks before darting off, Hoseok sticks his tongue out at them, grabs Yoongi’s elbow, and runs them deeper into the maze.
“Okay, here’s the plan.” Hoseok huddles them down in a hidden corner. “Stay together, watch each other’s backs, and destroy as many of those kids as possible.”
Yoongi nods, ears tuned in on the stampede of feet surrounding them. Hoseok holds a finger against his lips, jerking his head to the side to signal an enemy. They both nod in understanding, quickly breaking and turning the corner, laser-guns ready.
There’s only two kids there at the moment, and the duo quickly stun the kids, who then run away back to safety. This isn’t so bad, Yoongi thinks. And Hoseok’s smile makes it more than worth the extra cardio.
They move swiftly through the walls and barricades, taking down kids as they go. Hoseok is easily the better player, but Yoongi gives strong support from the rear. It isn’t until they’re lulled into a false sense of security that they find themselves surrounded. It starts with one, then two, they aim and fire, but it only takes seconds before they’re on them entirely and no amount of shooting could save them.
“Oh shi--!” Yoongi gasps, surprised at the brazenness of the children, and Hoseok turns his head looking for an exit. They’ve momentarily got a wall blocking them from lasers, but it won’t last long, they both know this.
When he finds only a small opportunity, he turns back to Yoongi, gaze strong. “Okay, there’s only one way out of this mess.”
The kids are watching with horrible, teethy smiles, about to start their attack.
“What?!” He whisper yells, desperate.
The dark haired boy licks his lips. He leans in close, lips near Yoongi’s ear. They’re close enough that he can feel the heat of him, Hoseok’s body curled in around him. Even with the his shirt covering him, Yoongi can feel Hoseok’s palm where it rests on his lower back. Yoongi’s heart speeds up, damn it. Now this is a little more...date like. All they’d need now was a kiss, and shit was the taller boy leaned in close enough to plant one on him.
Instead he whispers in his ear three words that Yoongi will never forget.
“ Cover for me.”
And then he’s gone like a gust of wind, and Yoongi is frozen with wide eyes. No way, there’s no way his date just left him for dead!
“Hoseok you fuc-! Da-, I swear to-!” Yoongi chokes out.
The kids are on him then, swift and strong, and when Yoongi walks out of the maze five minutes later his hair is a mess and his soul has been ripped from him painfully. Hoseok is laughing at him, pointing alongside a few of the other kids. They’re enjoying his misery a little too much, Yoongi thinks.
He marches straight up to the other boy, pleased as the kids all scatter in fear, and grabs Hoseok’s nose with his middle and forefinger, squeezing hard.
“Ah, ah, ah, Yoon!” His voice is nasally, Yoongi feels a little better at the sight of him.
“I absolutely can not believe you left me as bait on our first date. I should delete your number!”
Yoongi grumbles at him the entire way to the car, grumpy face in full effect. It’s warmer outside now that they’d been sprinting for so long, sweat beading on his forehead where before he had been chilly. Hoseok’s jacket is slung in the back of the car, no longer needed, and the two of the buckle up.
“It wasn’t bad though, right Yoon?”
Yoongi glances over, and the sight of him automatically makes the grumpy look fade away. He seems nervous, looks a little upset, even, and Yoongi sighs. Honestly, this boy.
“It was great. You’re a menace, but it was a lot of fun. I’m glad we came.”
Hoseok brightens, his own personal sunshine. “I’m really glad, Yoongi.”
When they arrive back to Yoongi’s place, they’re both feeling awkward once again. Stereotypically, a good date ends with a walk to the door and a kiss. Yoongi worries his bottom lip until it’s sore. He’s not really sure that he’s ready for a...a kiss, no matter how good the date was. They park, and Hoseok jumps out quickly to open Yoongi’s door for him.
Yoongi wants to be mad, but no one’s ever done that for him before and somehow he feels more endeared than anything. The stand facing each other at his door. It’s later now, the sun setting, and Yoongi has to admit here that Hoseok really would, somehow, make a good boyfriend. It’s still strange to think about, there’s still that possibility that this phase will pass quickly for Hoseok and end up hurting Yoongi, but…
But there’s no time like the present.
“Thanks for giving me a chance, hyung. I’m happy.” He looks like a puppy preening from attention.
Yoongi shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans, not missing the way Hoseok follows the movement with his eyes.
Are they...supposed to kiss now?
Sure he’s been on first dates before, been the dater and the datee, but this time around everything is different. In a good way, he’s decided, at least so far.
Instead of a kiss, or a hug, or really anything cute like he’d figured Hoseok would do, he reaches us and ruffles Yoongi’s already messy hair, causing him to gasp in embarrassment.
“You are literally the worst!” The older man groans, pushing himself away and stomping to the door, a smile still hidden on his face. Hoseok is laughing though, so he obviously isn’t taking him seriously, per the usual.
“I’ll text you later!” Hoesok yells just as Yoongi slams the door shut. The walls rattle a bit with the force of it.
As soon as he’s alone in the darkness of his flat once more, he allows himself to just breath, taking in the evening. His palms are still resting on the door as he faces it, and he leans the rest of the way until his forehead is pressed against the cool wood as well.
When he closes his eyes, all he sees is a heart smile, all he hears is the echo of Hoseok’s squeaky laugh, the feeling of his heat as his palm hours ago. Nothing enters his mind, for the first time in his life, except Jung Hoseok.
Yoongi slowly peels his eyes open, staring at the grains of wood in the door, unfocused.
“Shit.”